Page 21 of Serving my Dragon (The Dragocracy Chronicles #2)

Chapter Sixteen

Matias left without asking for permission. However, I granted him leniency given the reason. It upset me to hear Lola had been injured. I’d rather liked the woman, and not only because of her cooking. She knew how to scratch a dragon just right.

I remained at the citadel with Kayleigh, who seemed determined to teach me everything she knew.

Much appreciated. The movies and shows I’d watched didn’t always give an accurate representation of the real world.

Actions on screen were exaggerated. Drama inflated.

The violence of the current world was bad, but nothing like the massive shootouts and explosions depicted in the fictional shows and movies I watched.

Still, a dragon could only take so much learning a day.

“I’m done,” I announced as she finished an explanation of why people seemed so obsessed with themselves instead of being more concerned about improving the welfare of their leaders. Humanity would need to learn that their needs came second to a dragon.

“It’s a tad early for dinner,” Kayleigh remarked. “Did you want to go play?”

My snout wrinkled in annoyance. “Dragons don’t play.”

“I’m sorry. Are you going back to treasure hunting?” I could have sworn I heard amusement in her tone.

“Yes. The hoard has to be here somewhere.” But my predecessors had hidden it well.

I’d been searching, flying up to the alcove in the main room to find a lovely chamber.

Well, lovely once I removed the dusty debris of the furniture and fabric that used to adorn it.

Despite the room being enclosed in the mountain, in the afternoon, light bathed the entire chamber, a trick achieved using cleverly inserted chimneys with running water that refracted the sun’s rays allowing them to spill into the room.

I quite enjoyed curling up in the spot that used to hold a nest for naps.

While there was a secondary outlet—in case I needed a hasty exit—it didn’t lead to the hoard but spilled out on a ledge above the chasm.

I didn’t find the treasure room by the heated pool, either, just a tunnel at the rear of the space that went upwards and could only be climbed.

Once past an opening overgrown with vines, it also allowed escape.

The citadel had many of these emergency outlets, most only accessible to someone like me who could fly or ascend using my claws.

My theory regarding the hoard was that it hid somewhere in the chasm, a massive gash that I’d yet to fully explore.

It held a honeycomb of caves, some interconnected, others dead ends.

No scent of those who’d come before remained, too much time having elapsed, hence I had no way of tracking where the past dragons might have passed through.

That lack of clue left me entering each alcove one by one. Tedious, but necessary.

Kayleigh had suggested that perhaps the hoard no longer existed.

I refused to believe that, because I needed that wealth.

Needed it to make sure Matias stopped worrying about how he’d pay for things.

Needed it to attract more servants who would require the purchase of food and other supplies.

Needed it to begin my silent conquering of this area… then the world.

I rather liked Matias’ suggestion of being a shadowy ruler, especially while small and vulnerable.

While the lore I’d inherited balked at the idea of purchasing territory, I’d learned enough of this time—and its oligarchs—to realize simply declaring a place mine would cause strife with the humans.

They placed a lot of onus on ownership and things like land titles.

To buy property, I required funds, and lots of them. Juan had suggested once I did acquire some wealth that I invest it in something he called the stock market which apparently could vastly increase my hoard if I chose correctly. And I would, because how else would it grow?

But to do that, I needed to find the treasure.

Hence why I went in and out of caves, doing them in a straight row from top to bottom lest I miss one.

My initial method of sporadically popping in and out led to me visiting some of the alcoves more than once, wasting my time, which led to me being annoyed.

Why couldn’t my predecessors have left some kind of sign?

“Polly! Dinner!”

The faint call reached me as I readied to emerge from the latest failure, and at the words, my tummy rumbled.

Kayleigh had promised to make one of her yummy stews along with some fresh bread for dinner.

I exited the cave and eyed the one below it that finished the vertical row.

Before I could poke my head inside, I heard Kayleigh exclaiming, her voice echoing down the rocky chasm, “Who are you? What do you want?”

“Don’t you remember me?” a male taunted.

At the indication of an intruder, I began to ascend, climbing quietly.

“No. Have we met?”

“Oh, we have. I guess the amnesia story is true.”

“Who are you?” Kayleigh asked again.

“Does the name Blake ring a bell?”

“Sally’s Blake?” I heard the querying tone.

“The one and only. We met a few times before we left on our trip. A bad idea, as it turned out, mixing business with pleasure. I blame Sally for that. She insisted I bring you along to even out the sausage party.”

“Where’s Sally?” Kayleigh’s voice held a hint of a tremor. She was afraid and I didn’t like it one bit.

I crept closer, hoping their conversation covered the noise of my ascent.

“She’s not here. She turned out to not be the woman I thought she was.

Can you believe she got mad at me for shoving you off that cliff?

As if you left me any other choice. And then she had the nerve to lie.

You left her a voicemail and did she tell me?

Nope. I had to find out by searching her phone.

Once I found you were alive, I had a feeling you might contact her again. ”

“Did you hurt her?” Kayleigh huffed.

“Nothing that will cause lasting damage. So long as she cooperates and continues to be useful, she gets to live. Just like you’ll live, if you help me.”

“Help you with what?”

“Give me the dragon.”

“What dragon?” Kayleigh lied.

I allowed her denial of my existence given the reason.

“Don’t play games with me,” Blake snarled. “I know you have it. Should have known the bugger didn’t die. In my defense, it’s the first live one I encountered. I didn’t know it would be so tough, even freshly hatched.”

“Dragons aren’t real.”

A smacking sound followed by Kayleigh’s cry of pain had me seeing red. How dare he raise a hand to my servant!

“Let’s try this again. Where is the dragon?”

“You’ll never find her.”

“A female, eh? Nice. The boss will be pleased, given he’s located a male in Canada.”

What? The news almost made me lose my grip.

“You’ve captured a dragon.” I almost didn’t catch Kayleigh’s whisper.

“Almost. My boss has it under observation because our money man is dragging his feet. Apparently, the habitat he’s building for it is incomplete.”

“You’re putting the dragons in zoos?”

Blake laughed. “What a waste that would be. It’s more like a luxury prison so we can study the creature as well as condition it to obey us.”

I almost laughed. A dragon obey a human?

“You’re going to make it a prisoner.”

“More like a spoiled guest. You should see all the stupid shit our money man is putting in. Stocked pond for fishing. Aerial perches. Livestock so it can enjoy fresh kills. He seems to think he can make the dragon his friend, when really, it’s just a tool for advancing science.

A thing that will impart power. An epic discovery that will unlock so many potentials.

Imagine training it to go to war. A dragon that can spew flames and roast the enemy into surrender would be something leaders would pay dearly for. ”

“You can’t do that. Dragons are living, sentient beings,” Kayleigh huffed.

“Even without your memories, you’re just as sanctimonious as before,” the man stated with disgust.

“Is that why you kept sending those people after me? Because I told you your plan was horrible.”

“Partly. You also knew too much. Still do, given you’ve been spending all this time with a dragon, learning its secrets.”

“Secrets that do me no good. Who would I tell? No one would believe me.”

“You’re right, they wouldn’t, but shout long enough and you might cause someone to look more closely than we’re ready for. No one is stealing what we’ve worked hard to uncover.”

I clung to the rocky wall only a few feet from Blake but had no idea what to do next. I lacked the size to go against a grown male. Although, I did have sharp claws and teeth. However, he might have a gun and allies.

“You didn’t uncover anything. The volcano hatched Polly,” Kayleigh huffed.

“And who do you think caused it to erupt?”

“That’s impossible.”

“Was,” he corrected. “My boss found a way to activate dormant volcanoes and cones. Out of the three we’ve exploded so far, two dragons have emerged.

Although, the boss gave up on the Misti hatchling and I’m not telling him otherwise.

Let him keep thinking it’s dead, seeing as how I’ll earn a much fatter paycheck selling it to a collector. ”

“How did you even know Polly survived?”

“You called it Polly?” Blake scoffed. “What the fuck? It’s a dragon, not a doll.”

“Polly doesn’t seem to mind her name, probably because it was given to her out of affection.”

Blake snorted. “I’ll have to definitely change it to something more impressive when I auction her off. Maybe something like Firestorm or DeadlyWings.”

“You haven’t yet told me how you knew Polly survived.”

“Quite by accident. My drone surveillance picked up a few conversations from your boyfriend’s family. Mostly boring stuff, except for the woman who asked if Matias took his lizard with him on his vacation with you.”

“Could have been any kind of lizard,” Kayleigh stated.